Wine and other labels are collected as mementos of special events, used in wine journals, tasting notes, used for decoration, collected as objects of art, and saved as a future reference for label information (e.g. vineyard, vintage, region, grape).
Sommeliers (wine stewards), wine enthusiasts, wine cellar owners, and households that enjoy wine and wine label collecting have an interest in removing (e.g., from wine bottles) labels while maintaining the condition and integrity of the label. A wine steward may want to peel and remove a label from a bottle of wine consumed by restaurant patrons, and then provide the label to the patrons as a keepsake of the occasion. A wine cellar owner may keep a “cellar book” which includes labels and tasting notes for reference of cellar inventory. Enthusiasts and oenophiles may collect labels in a wine journal to record tasting notes, food pairings and pricing/vendor information. Others may want to remove labels of a favorite wine, so they can show to a wine merchant to order more. Thus there is a need for a device and method of easily removing a label, such as that from a wine bottle, while maintaining the condition and integrity of the label.
Currently, there are known methods of keepsake bottle label removal. However, they all have substantial drawbacks with regard to ease of use and maintaining the integrity of the label. One method of label removal involves soaking a bottle in water or soapy water to loosen adhesive label backing, then manually peeling or sliding the label from bottle (by hand without an implement). Or alternatively, a standard straight blade is used to scrape and thus remove the well-soaked label from the bottle. However, over-soaking can cause labels to warp, lose integrity and degrade or deteriorate. Soaking is neither an effective nor an efficient means of removal for many types of labels, as the adhesive on many labels fail to release and/or the label tears during the manual removal process. Likewise, free-hand, manual use of a standard straight blade (razor blade) to remove labels can be tedious, hard to manage without damaging the label and even dangerous.
Another alternative but lesser-known method of wine label removal includes the use of solvents (e.g. rubber cement remover) to dissolve and/or loosen the glue or adhesive backing. Solvents can damage paper labels, and can pose a health risk when used in a manner which exceeds maximum exposure limits.
Another method of wine label removal involves the application and removal of a clear one-sided self-adhesive sheet (e.g. Wine Appeal, Label-off™). The single use sheet is designed to adhere to the label surface and tear the label from its backing upon removal, thereby separating the printed surface of the label from the label backing and adhesive. However, this method often results in torn or distressed labels and/or undesirable wrinkles in the clear adhesive laminate. Thus, it is an objective of the invention to provide a device and method of easily removing a label, such as that from a wine bottle, while maintaining the condition and integrity of the label.